Psychological Influences on Safety Culture in the Construction Industry: A Pedagogical Framework for Construction Safety Training Application

8 pages•Published: September 25, 2020

Amelia Saul, Syed Ahmed and Mostafa Namian

Abstract

Construction and engineering careers place an emphasis on safety training. Although this knowledge is crucial to succeeding in one's field there is a lack of awareness with regards to the principle of safety culture. Within a psychological context, workers in a particular setting look towards others for social cues, and there are underlying social principles that determine whether social cues will be internalized, acted on, or ignored. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an approach to advise trainers on underlying safety principles. The goal is for learners to internalize and act upon safe behaviors in the work environment. A pilot study was conducted interviewing four OSHA-authorized construction safety trainers. The participants were provided with a vignette activity and asked their opinion and experience. After the activity was complete, the participants rated their experience and provided suggestions for improvements. The vignettes were highly rated by the trainers and they suggested including additional vignettes, having the activity applied in various versions (group vs individual) as well as doing an at-home activity. Future research will work on improving safety behavior to be included in additional safety training.

Keyphrases: construction safety, pedagogical construction education, safety culture, safety education, social atmosphere

In: Tom Leathem (editor). Associated Schools of Construction Proceedings of the 56th Annual International Conference, vol 1, pages 116-123.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/KzXR
	https://doi.org/10.29007/xxf2

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2020:Psychological_Influences_Safety_Culture,
  author    = {Amelia Saul and Syed Ahmed and Mostafa Namian},
  title     = {Psychological Influences on Safety Culture in the Construction Industry: A Pedagogical Framework for Construction Safety Training Application},
  booktitle = {Associated Schools of Construction Proceedings of the 56th Annual International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {1},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/KzXR},
  doi       = {10.29007/xxf2},
  pages     = {116-123},
  year      = {2020}}

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